Giddy, oddly moral piece of escapism

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ALLIANCE FILMS Aksel Hennie multi-tasks as Roger Brown in Headhunters. (POSTMEDIA)

Proving just how much you can do with a good idea, a moderate budget, and unexpected characters, this little thriller from Norway is a timely reminder to every struggling cinematic tradition that you can compete with Hollywood and win -- as long as you're smarter than your competition.

The film asserts this little-guy success formula at every level, because our unlikely hero and narrator is just that: a little guy.

Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) tells us he stands no taller than 160-odd centimetres (5.25 feet) in the opening montage. It's an odd tidbit to pass on to your viewer in the first breath, but it's a central point -- because the next scene shows us Roger kissing his skyscraper of a wife, Diana (Synnove Macody Lund), in the shower.

As he caresses his wife's model-like, naked body, he also tells us that he lies to her daily. She thinks Roger has money because he came from a wealthy family, but the truth of the matter is that Roger is an art thief.

A clever con artist who's managed to work his way to the top of a headhunting firm, Roger can scout his next mark with every new interview. He can ask questions like, "Do you have a family?" and "Any pets, a dog? Cat?" He can also ask, "What are your passions? Do you collect art?"

By the time he's wrapped the biographical small talk, Roger has a pretty good idea of how easy the grab will be. To make things even smoother, he's infiltrated the biggest alarm company in the city by getting his cohort a job as a technician.

Roger knows he can't go on forever. In fact, he tells us in that opening montage that people like him do one of two things: They snag a prize that allows them to retire in style, or they get caught.

Roger knows he's pushing his luck when he meets Clas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a tall, handsome and highly qualified applicant for a new job at a GPS firm. Clas has a Reubens that could put Roger over the top and put an end to his double life.

He wants to nab the canvas, but at the moment of capture, he finds his wife's cellphone wrapped in the tangle of post-coital sheets.

Making things more sketchy is Clas's bizarre obsession with the new job. He desperately wants it, and men as handsome as Clas look creepy when they're desperate.

Roger's world falls to pieces in a matter of seconds. He can't trust his wife and he can't extricate himself from a dangerous situation.

By the time we realize Clas may be more than a romantic rival, director Morten Tyldum has already plotted a gut-churning roller-coaster ride for the viewer.

Blending black comedy with true thrills, the back half of the film features Roger escaping one brand of horror after the next, with some surprising twists and turns along the way.

Viewers should be cautioned there is also a fair bit of gore, but what makes this Norwegian film such a refreshing change from the moronic likes of Quentin Tarantino's boyish blood splatter is the emotional tether we keep to the material.

At one point, a police officer is run over by a semi-trailer and launched over a highway railing into a canyon below. The filmmaker decides to show us the results -- but not for gratuitous gross value.

Everything in this movie has a point, even the gore. Moreover, there is an emotional heft to even the most absurd and undeniably funny bits, and this is what gives Headhunters its endless -- if dour -- charms.

The Scandinavian sensibility can pull off these delicate equations, because there's a clinical sterility to the mise en scene that ensures every detail is in its place. Where Hollywood movies often feel like a garage sale of cheap devices, the Nordic sensibility feels like a stroll through the IKEA showroom.

Things look good, even if they're just pressed fibreboard covered with veneer.

Headhunters is a genre thriller with film-noir roots, and as such, it's an off-the-rack experience, yet thanks to some stylish lines and an unlikely hero at the centre, Headhunters makes for a giddy, and oddly moral, piece of escapism.

-- Postmedia News

Other voices

Selected excerpts from reviews of Headhunters.

Headhunters is an absurd amount of grisly fun, which is a good thing, since, looked at in any great detail, it probably doesn't hold up all that well.

-- Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

Headhunters is a frighteningly well-made thriller about an amoral art thief on the run.

-- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Headhunters is a bit like an IKEA desk assembled with your non-dominant arm -- sleek and attractive, but likely to fall to pieces if you look at it too hard.

-- Rafer Guzman, Newsday

Headhunters will indeed hand you your head.

-- Tom Long, Detroit News

-- Compiled by Shane Minkin

Movie Review

Headhunters

Starring Aksel Hennie

Globe

101 minutes

18A

Three and a half stars out of five

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 6, 2012 D4